Can Happen to Anybody

[IdaGriz01]

Hello to all you perch, rainbows, catfish, etc. ... and maybe the occasional sucker

Just so you know: I had no particular notion what I was chumming for. I was just trying to toss out something interesting for discussion. And I'm not at all disappointed by the direction it took, just a bit surprised. I actually thought I might be starting another -- God forbid -- "move up" thread. Given the NC winners that have moved up (let's not forget Ga Southern long with Marshall and the others), that seemed like a reasonable possibility.

When you get right down to it, nobody "owns" a thread ... it can go anywhere eGriz folks want to take it.

 

[RABIDAWG]

That’s a lot of Monday-morning quarterbacking....

Since the Pflu/O'Day Main Hall Massacre, we have had 354 Mondays to quarterback. Just to put a figure on it. :lol:

Another viewpoint.....if that student-athlete would have just done the right thing, all this would be moot. ‘Twas the main event.

Good point, RABIDAWG. When you came to the fork in the road, which road did YOU choose. When you were in your early twenties, did you ever think with your "other head?" Or......When you GET to your early twenties, do you think you'll use the right head to do the 'right thing?' Fork in the road. I don't know how old you are, so I'm covering my bases here. You are right, that rational, reasoned thought would have avoided this whole mess. Let me inject one word here: ACQUITTED. Just one Perch to another. :-?

Good point, Tourist. Being older, I come from a time when courtship was respected, even if the goal wanted to involve the sweetness of consensual seduction. Only to be so lucky, I suppose. The other fork in the road existed, for sure, but I think a lot of us growing through the 60’s & 70’s were relatively sexually naive. The 70’s did get crazy though....what caused the women to suddenly become so, um...forward? (Just a sucker to the perch?)

 

[IdaGriz01]

... Once again, like I said in my previous post, you cannot compare any of those other teams except the big 3 to us because non of them have come close to sustaining the success that we had to fall from. Most of the rest of them have seen “flash in the pan” success compared to us. Ok, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration but you should get my point. Our greatness was unparalleled by more then 98% of the current and former FCS teams out there.

I certainly agree that I might be doing “apples to oranges” in comparing some of those other programs to the Griz. For most teams, the off years experienced by UM football in the past 8-10 years would really be “no big deal.” But Griz fans have gotten use to much more.

Recall that you have to go back 1985 to record a second losing season for the Griz. Think about that … thirty-three years! (Or “a third of a century,” which sounds more impressive ) Assuming our fan base more or less mirrors the general population in age distribution, that means 45% (nearly half) of the Griz fan base wasn’t even born the only other time UM football had a losing season.

In previous posts, I mentioned several top programs have had more losing seasons than that just in the last ten years. But let’s take the survey further back, still focused on teams that have won a 1-AA championship since … say 1995, when the Griz won. Because teams now sometimes play 12 games, I’ll include the breakeven 6-6 records when they show up.

Montana: One losing season since 1995, then going back 33 years, as noted above.

NDSU: A power in D-II football, with phenomenal success since moving to FCS. They had losing seasons in 2009 and 2002 (D-II). Before that, you have to go back to 1975 to find another losing season.

Eastern Washington: The Eagles have, of course, had a lot of recent success, and have recorded only three losing seasons since 1995. (That’s still two more than the Griz program during that period.) They have also had an amazing number of “barely winning” (6-5) seasons … seven in all.

James Madison: A strong program, but since 1995, the Dukes have had four losing and two (6-6) seasons.

Villanova: Another good program, but the Wildcats have had six losing seasons, including one year when they went 3-8.

Youngstown State: YSU has had six losing seasons since 1995, and several of their winning seasons were at 6-5.

Richmond: The Spiders have had eight losing seasons since 1995. That included four straight from 2001-2004, with two of those ending at 2-9.

Delaware: The Blue Hens have had seven losing and one (6-6) season since 1995.

The remaining champions since 1995 have all moved up. It’s difficult to compare their traditions, but here’s a try:
Appalachian State: The Mountaineers may be closest to the long-term 1-AA/FCS winning tradition of the Griz. App State did not have a losing season in FCS after 1993 (4-7), and you have to go back to 1984 to find another one.

Georgia Southern: The Eagles also have a long winning tradition, but they did have three losing seasons from 1996 thru 2009. They also had 6-5 seasons in 1994 and 2008.

Western Kentucky: They started having consistent winning seasons after 1995, winning the 1-AA Natty in 2002, and moving up to FBS in 2007. Before their winning stretch, however, they had five losing seasons in the period from 1990 thru 1995.

Marshall: The Thundering Herd is harder to figure and compare. They had winning records in the decade or so before they went FBS in 1997. However, before 1984, they had not had a winning season in twenty years. Clearly, that stretch started before the plane crash that wiped out the team in 1970.

Massachusetts: The Minutemen won the 1-AA championship in 2006, but had five losing seasons from 1994 thru 2011. That last losing record was not a good basis to move up to FBS in 2012 … and their move up has proved disastrous.

Bottom line: Except for NDSU and App State, since about 1990-1995 all of these programs have had more, sometime many more, losing seasons than the Griz are used to. (NDSU is again the outlier because they built their winning tradition as a D-II program. Of course, they’ve made up for lost time since.) So 'bama-Griz is basically correct.

 

[alabamagrizzly]

... Once again, like I said in my previous post, you cannot compare any of those other teams except the big 3 to us because non of them have come close to sustaining the success that we had to fall from. Most of the rest of them have seen “flash in the pan” success compared to us. Ok, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration but you should get my point. Our greatness was unparalleled by more then 98% of the current and former FCS teams out there.

I certainly agree that I might be doing “apples to oranges” in comparing some of those other programs to the Griz. For most teams, the off years experienced by UM football in the past 8-10 years would really be “no big deal.” But Griz fans have gotten use to much more.

Recall that you have to go back 1985 to record a second losing season for the Griz. Think about that … thirty-three years! (Or “a third of a century,” which sounds more impressive ) Assuming our fan base more or less mirrors the general population in age distribution, that means 45% (nearly half) of the Griz fan base wasn’t even born the only other time UM football had a losing season.

In previous posts, I mentioned several top programs have had more losing seasons that that just in the last ten years. But let’s take the survey further back, still focused on teams that have won a 1-AA championship since … say 1995, when the Griz won. Because teams now sometimes play 12 games, I’ll include the breakeven 6-6 records when they show up.

Montana: One losing season since 1995, then going back 33 years, as noted above.

NDSU: A power in D-II football, with phenomenal success since moving to FCS. They had losing seasons in 2009 and 2002 (D-II). Before that, you have to go back to 1975 to find another losing season.

Eastern Washington: The Eagles have, of course, had a lot of recent success, and have recorded only three losing seasons since 1995. (That’s still two more than the Griz program during that period.) They have also had an amazing number of “barely winning” (6-5) seasons … seven in all.

James Madison: A strong program, but since 1995, the Dukes have had four losing and two (6-6) seasons.

Villanova: Another good program, but the Wildcats have had six losing seasons, including one year when they went 3-8.

Youngstown State: YSU had had six losing season since 1995, and several of their winning seasons were at 6-5.

Richmond: The Spiders have had eight losing seasons since 1995. That included four straight from 2001-2004, with two of those ending at 2-9.

Delaware: The Blue Hens have had seven losing and one (6-6) season since 1995.

The remaining champions since 1995 have all moved up. It’s difficult to compare their traditions, but here’s a try:
Appalachian State: The Mountaineers may be closest to the long-term 1-AA/FCS winning tradition of the Griz. App State did not have a losing season in FCS after 1993 (4-7), and you have to go back to 1984 to find another one.

Georgia Southern: The Eagles also have a long winning tradition, but they did have three losing seasons from 1996 thru 2009. They also had 6-5 seasons in 1994 and 2008.

Western Kentucky: They started having consistent winning seasons after 1995, winning the 1-AA Natty in 2002, and moving up to FBS in 2007. Before their winning stretch, however, they had five losing seasons in the period from 1990 thru 1995.

Marshall: The Thundering Herd is harder to figure and compare. They had winning records in the decade or so before they went FBS in 1997. However, before 1984, they had not had a winning season in twenty years. Clearly, that stretch started before the plane crash that wiped out the team in 1970.

Massachusetts: The Minutemen won the 1-AA championship in 2006, but had had five losing season from 1994 thru 2011. That last losing record was not a good basis to move up to FBS in 2012 … and their move up has proved disastrous.

Bottom line: Except for NDSU and App State, since about 1990-1995 all of these programs have had more, sometime many more, losing seasons than the Griz are used to. (NDSU is again the outlier because they built their winning tradition as a D-II program. Of course, they’ve made up for lost time since.) So 'bama-Griz is basically correct.

Thank you for summing it up for me :lol: . Jus kidding. I know we’ve had a ruff couple of years lately but all should know we’re not going away and w/in two more years, we’ll be national contenders again. We have too much in our favor to help return us to dominance.

 

[CatGrad-UMGradStu]

I'm too lazy to look up Eastern Kentucky at the moment; what happened to their program? Roy Kidd was a coaching genius and a great man. I don't recall the year they played the Griz in Missoula but I know several of the players really enjoyed the experience except for the score.

 

[IdaGriz01]

I'm too lazy to look up Eastern Kentucky at the moment; what happened to their program? Roy Kidd was a coaching genius and a great man. I don't recall the year they played the Griz in Missoula but I know several of the players really enjoyed the experience except for the score.

The game you remember (Griz, 48-0) was in the first round of the UM championship run in 1995.

Kidd was indeed a fantastic coach, ending at 314-124-8 when he retired after the 2002 season. (He’s in the College Football Hall of Fame. ) Kidd and two of his successors had 31 winning seasons before 2009. That’s all all the way to 1977, when the Colonels were 5-5.

But they’ve had three coaches since Kidd. And the E-K program has been sad since the string was broken in 2009. Counting that year, the Colonels have had three losing seasons and one (6-6) since. They made it into the playoff twice during that stretch, but lost in the first round.

 

[CatGrad-UMGradStu]

I'm too lazy to look up Eastern Kentucky at the moment; what happened to their program? Roy Kidd was a coaching genius and a great man. I don't recall the year they played the Griz in Missoula but I know several of the players really enjoyed the experience except for the score.

The game you remember (Griz, 48-0) was in the first round of the UM championship run in 1995.

Kidd was indeed a fantastic coach, ending at 314-124-8 when he retired after the 2002 season. (He’s in the College Football Hall of Fame. ) Kidd and two of his successors had 31 winning seasons before 2009. That’s all all the way to 1977, when the Colonels were 5-5.

But they’ve had three coaches since Kidd. And the E-K program has been sad since the string was broken in 2009. Counting that year, the Colonels have had three losing seasons and one (6-6) since. They made it into the playoff twice during that stretch, but lost in the first round.

Wow! To me their domination seems like just yesterday but looking at those dates gives me pause...now I know what guys like Ken Wilburn, Bill Napier, John Starr and A.J. Green's high school coach were talking about when they said all the years of teaching and coaching would one day just be a blur and it'd be difficult to recall instantly which kids played with each other and when...

And 95 and 2001 still seems like just the other day...I kind of relate to the OP now! Heck, I remember being at a clinic when A.J.'s coach got out the old wing-t from West Point and taught Starr and other high school coaches--and he was "old" then. Also remember a clinic when Urban Myer showed what the wishbone from a direct snap would look like and Chris Ault showed everbody what the wing-t from a direct snap would look like...kind of like a pistol...